In many ways, the EtherDelta Settlement Order created more questions for investors and platform developers than it resolved. With the statutory framework of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act in view, the Commission’s decision to charge EtherDelta with violating Section 5 of the Exchange Act seems unsurprising. As the settlement order indicates, the DAO Report published a year prior to the SEC’s investigation of EtherDelta signaled that the ERC20 tokens might be subject to the registration requirements under Section 5 of the Securities Act. In other words, if a platform or system passes the functional test set out Exchange Act Rule 3b-16(a), the platform or system must register as a national securities exchange under Section 6 of the Exchange Act. (2) Uses established, non-discretionary methods (whether by providing a trading facility or by setting rules) under which such orders interact with each other, and the buyers and sellers entering such orders agree to the terms of the trade.
Further evidence shows that the liquidity in the cryptocurrency market decreases after negative news announcements, whereas increases after positive news announcements (Yue et al., 2021). Yet, regarding Bitcoin intraday dynamics, evidence highlights that liquidity is highest during the opening times of major global exchanges, and that the markets seem to be more illiquid during Stock Method Max the early morning (Eross et al., 2019). Furthermore, liquidity presents a positive and significant effect on Bitcoin informational efficiency, unlike volatility that presents a negative effect (Sensoy, 2019). Firstly, innovations distributions that capture skewness, kurtosis and heavy tails constitute excellent tools in modelling distribution of cryptocurrencies returns.
Bulgaria came into the spotlight for its Bitcoin holdings due to law enforcement activities that resulted in the seizure of a considerable amount of Bitcoin from criminal activities. Reports have suggested that at one point, the government held over 200,000 BTC, positioning it as one of the countries with significant Bitcoin assets. Nakamoto’s holdings, while vast, grant them no special privileges or authority over the network, reinforcing Bitcoin’s commitment to decentralization and democratic governance.
From the figure, we can observe how cryptocurrencies experience exponential growth in 2017 and a large bubble burst in early 2018. In the wake of the pandemic, cryptocurrencies raised dramatically in value in 2020. In 2021, the market value of cryptocurrencies has been very volatile but consistently at historically high levels.
Nikolova et al. (2020) provided a new method to calculate the probability of volatility clusters, especially for cryptocurrencies (high volatility of their exchange rates). The authors used the FD4 method to calculate the Hurst index of a volatility series and describe explicit criteria for determining the existence of fixed size volatility clusters by calculation. The results showed that the volatility of cryptocurrencies changes more rapidly than that of traditional assets, and much more rapidly than that of Bitcoin/USD, Ethereum/USD, and Ripple/USD pairs. Ma et al. (2020) investigated whether a new Markov Regime Transformation Mixed Data Sampling (MRS-MIADS) model can improve the prediction accuracy of Bitcoin’s Realised Variance (RV).
These surveys are rather limited in scope as compared to ours, which also includes a discussion on the latest papers in the area; we want to remark that this is a fast-moving research field. Cryptocurrency networks display a lack of regulation that has been criticized as enabling criminals who seek to evade taxes and launder money. Money laundering issues are also present in regular bank transfers, however with bank-to-bank wire transfers for instance, the account holder must at least provide a proven identity. Furthermore, it is revealed a delayed response of Bitcoin’s volatility to a volatility shock in Ethereum returns, hence, indicating that the Bitcoin market is inefficient (Beneki et al., 2019).
With over 460 million Bitcoin addresses created, the scale of Bitcoin’s adoption is significant. However, this number doesn’t directly translate to active users due to the nature of Bitcoin allowing individuals to own multiple wallets. A more telling statistic is the 67 million wallet addresses that hold a balance of at least $1, shedding light on the active participation in the Bitcoin economy. MicroStrategy has embraced Bitcoin as a primary treasury reserve asset, amassing 174,530 BTC, which represents 0.831% of the total Bitcoin supply. The company, led by CEO Michael J. Saylor, has invested approximately $4.68 billion into Bitcoin, valuing their holdings at about $8.73 billion today.
Cardano also works like Ethereum to enable smart contracts and decentralised applications, which ADA, its native coin, powers. Unlike some other forms of cryptocurrency, Tether (USDT) is a stablecoin pegged to the value of US$1. This is achieved by having a 1-1 backing between the token and USD which hypothetically keeps a value equal to one of those denominations because one token should always be able to be redeemed for one dollar. In theory, this means Tether’s value is supposed to be more consistent than other cryptocurrencies, and it’s favoured by investors who are wary of the extreme volatility of other coins.
In summary, cryptocurrencies are part of an ecosystem based on Blockchain technology. Our study differentiates itself from previous ones by making use of the bibliographic coupling. Literature addressing cryptocurrency traders and investors reveals that despite of the existence of different groups of age, gender, and trading patterns in the cryptocurrency trading, men are the dominant gender.
Indeed, we acknowledge that our empirical evidence is not generalizable to other cryptocurrencies or exchanges. Cryptocurrency liquidity can differ significantly across various currencies and trading venues, as demonstrated by several studies (e.g., Brauneis et al. 2021b; Dyhrberg et al. 2018; Loi 2018; Marshall et al. 2019). Although Bitcoin is the most well-known and widely traded cryptocurrency, it may exhibit unique characteristics compared with other cryptocurrencies.
This review followed a predetermined search strategy using the terms (“cryptocurrency” OR “encryption currency” OR “digital money” OR “digital currency”) AND (“factor” OR “determine”) AND “(price)”. Three databases, Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCOhost, were used as most relevant studies can be sourced from these databases (Akyildirim, Aysan, Cepni, & Darendeli, 2021; Liu et al., 2022; Mohamed, 2021). To maintain a consistent standard for analysis and to ensure high-quality findings, this review only considered peer-reviewed journal articles which provided reliable and accurate data (Li et al., 2019). This review included all relevant studies published before August 2022 when the search was conducted. The review followed the procedure described in the PRISMA checklist (Tricco et al., 2018). Given the heterogeneity of the factors underlying the liquidity concept, the extant literature sets forth a mixture of proxies that reflect some, but not all, of these dimensions.
Derivatives do not require the trader to own the shares or assets in question. Crypto is used by criminals because it’s a useful tool for moving money without permission, signatures, banks, etc, although it’s no longer as fully anonymous as it used to be. Users can transport bitcoin in any quantity on a tiny computer chip, transact digitally at will or even store a particular value in their memory like remembering a password. It’s tempting to dismiss bitcoin due to its association with crime – it might fail because it’s banned outright or shunned by legitimate users. But before passing judgment, read the next paragraph about how this ability to move a digital asset is useful and practical for law-abiding citizens as well. Although various crypto wallets are available, storing your crypto assets in a cold wallet is generally recommended for maximum security.
Tether’s flexibility makes it incredibly versatile and it can be used almost anywhere a user wants to transfer or transact value. Tether (USDT) has a circulating supply of 40,805,169,352 USDT tokens This supply may increase or decrease according to demand and current market liquidity. The Israeli Securities Authority has ruled that cryptocurrency is a security[157] (link in Hebrew) subject to Israel’s Securities Laws. The Cayman’s crypto regulations provided regulatory certainty for VASPs and align with international AML/CFT regulations to protect consumers and to meet the requirements of the FATF recommendations.
Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA)[29] and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)[30] have issued guidance requiring crypto trading platforms and dealers in Canada to register with the local provincial regulators. In 2021 Canada adopted a clear registration regime for trading platforms that offer custodial services to Canadian clients. The Ontario Securities Commission has actively enforced the regulations against several unregistered foreign trading platforms. In 2021 digital assets moved from the fringes of the economy and began to enter the mainstream, prompting more widespread public adoption. Commercials for crypto trading platforms blanket network television in the United States and the sector has become a focus of everyday conversation. Wilkins said she saw crypto-assets as the bedrock of the emerging financial ecosystem.
An immensely relevant property of the cryptocurrency market microstructure is liquidity, which Manahov (2021) defines as the ease and speed with which a given cryptocurrency can be converted into other peers or fiat money. Liquidity is a vital precondition for cryptocurrencies to effectively take up their role, whether as an unorthodox means of payment, an investment asset, or a safe haven commodity. Typically, a lack of liquidity in the conventional and cryptocurrency markets elevates traders’ transaction costs, gives rise to informational inefficiency, and makes it possible to manipulate prices. Bitcoin is notorious for its erratic price behavior, with traders attempting to determine the reasons underlying these gyrations, which can eventually impact its liquidity. Indeed, a thorough examination of how price and liquidity levels change over time is necessary to understand the variables influencing the rapidly growing cryptocurrency markets and their growing integration into the global financial system.
In the opposite direction, the shocks received by the stock markets are 0.11%. For the relationship between US (Chinese) stock markets and Bitcoin, the SP 500 (SSE) index volatility explains 14.23% (4.31%) of the 30-day-ahead forecast error variance of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the main receiver of return shocks from the US and Chinese stock markets. In this context, Bitcoin can be seen as a safe haven for the US and Chinese investors to hedge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study on the relationship between cryptocurrency market and the performance of stock market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region found a mixed result [13] . While cryptocurrency market improves the performance of stock market for countries that have flexibility in the application of the Islamic Sharia rules, the opposite was the case with countries that adhere strictly to Islamic Sharia rules. Cryptocurrencies are a globally spreading phenomenon that is frequently and also prominently addressed by the media, venture capitalists, financial and governmental institutions alike [1] . The recent emergence of cryptocurrencies as a new class of financial assets consequently offers a new opportunity to investigate several as yet unexplored aspects of cryptocurrencies. In empirical finance, the role of cryptocurrency markets has grown rapidly in recent years gaining a lot of attention from among academic scholars, the media, government institutions and the finance industry. The upsurge in cryptocurrencies and rapid development of cryptocurrency markets have been attributed to the recent sharp increase in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple trading volume leading to a comprehensive literature on cryptocurrency markets [1] .
As an autonomous Danish dependent territory under the Kingdom of Denmark, financial services, banking, and crypto laws and regulations in Greenland are within the scope of the Danish regime. Lawmakers in France have recently debated changing the tax structure related to cryptos. Occasional traders are charged a flat tax of 30% while miners and professional traders are taxed 45%. The list of supervised entities[76] operating in the cryptocurrency and digital currency sector is small, with fewer than 10 companies registered; although, the FSA does not advise on or restrict Finnish customers visiting foreign websites. The International Monetary Fund, has urged El Salvador to reverse course, citing concerns about the country’s financial stability.
At a higher level, researchers focus on the design of models to predict return or volatility in cryptocurrency markets. On the next level above predictive models, researchers discuss technical trading methods to trade in real cryptocurrency markets. Bubbles and extreme conditions are hot topics in cryptocurrency trading because, as discussed above, these markets have shown to be highly volatile (whilst volatility went down after crashes). Portfolio and cryptocurrency asset management are effective methods to control risk. Other papers included in this survey include topics like pricing rules, dynamic market analysis, regulatory implications, and so on. Table 3 shows the general scope of cryptocurrency trading included in this survey.
The SV models appear to be more robust to misspecifications as well as to radical changes in the time-series (Tiwari et al., 2019). Furthermore, to explain Bitcoin price volatility the AR-CGARCH model seems to be an optimal model in terms of goodness-of-fit, suggesting that it is important to consider the short and the long run components of the conditional variance (Katsiampa, 2017). Moreover, the generalized autoregressive score (GAS) models specifications with heavy-tailed distributions seem to improve the goodness-of-fit as well as the forecast performance for Bitcoin risk and returns (Troster et al., 2019). Other study developed a model to analyze the default risk in cryptocurrencies. The developed model is based on a linear discriminant analysis to predict cryptocurrency defaults (Grobys & Sapkota, 2020). The model has the ability to serve as a screening tool for investors since it can explain 87% of bankruptcies in the cryptomarket, after only one month of trading (Grobys & Sapkota, 2020).
The final trading result depends on the effectiveness of the strategy and the trader’s ability to assess market sentiment. This introduces new configuration possibilities for institutions in regions with specific regulations around cold storage and strengthens the security of MPC wallets by adding a key refresh mechanism (minutes-long intervals). The famously high volatility of the crypto markets means that cryptocurrencies can rise or fall by 10-20% within a single day, making them unreliable as a store of value.
But in 2021, multi-party computation is only one part of the equation for digital asset security. Investors use fundamental analysis to try and determine the intrinsic value of an asset. By using the fundamental analysis and looking at both internal and external factors, it may be possible to determine if an asset is undervalued or overvalued.
If you are uncertain about which cryptocurrency to purchase among altcoins, take a closer look at Litecoin. This is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, which is sometimes referred to as „digital silver” due to its status as the first Bitcoin alternative. Uniswap faces significant competition from other decentralized exchanges and platforms offering similar services and features. As the company strives to achieve its ambitious goals, it has encountered legal challenges related to its XRP cryptocurrency.